1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process for degrading anionic and/or non-ionic surface active agents, detergents and like materials from wastewater containing the same and, more specifically, to a process for treating waste water containing anionic and/or non-ionic surface active agents, detergents and like materials, for example, effluent from industrial plants, including those from textile manufacturers or processors, with a novel microorganism of the strain Pseudomonas fluorescens whereby the anionic and/or non-ionic surface active agents, detergents and similar materials in the wastewater are thereby degraded and removed and the wastewater is purified. Further, this invention relates to a novel microbial strain of the genus Pseudomonas.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Wastewaters containing organic and inorganic materials as pollutants are unsuitable for reuse and undersirable for release into the biosphere due to problems of pollution which results when they are discharged untreated. To remove, or at least minimize, this difficulty, domestic, municipal and industrial wastewaters are conventionally processed in biological treatment systems, for example, aerated lagoons or activated sludge systems, for removal of biodegradable organic matter prior to re-use or discharge to receiving bodies of water.
While the biological processes occurring during such a biological treatment provide the ability to produce effluent with lower biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and low chemical oxygen demand (COD), unfortunately, removal of materials such as anionic and non-ionic surface active agents, detergents and like materials using conventionally employed biological treatment systems has not met with a large amount of success. Even when the biological treatment system is capable of degrading materials such as anionic and non-ionic surface active agents, detergents and like materials, the degradation process is often too slow or insufficient resulting in a concentration build-up of these materials or a carry through the system of these materials undigested. Reduction in the levels of anionic and non-ionic surface active agents, detergents and similar materials in wastewater to an acceptable level for discharge of the wastewater into the biosphere is either costly or ineffective particularly for difficultly biodegradable or non-biodegradable materials.
The difficulty arising due to the inability of bacteria normally present in conventional biological treatment systems to degrade anionic and non-ionic surface active agents, detergents and like materials at an acceptable rate, if at all, or in reducing the concentration thereof to the extent that such wastewater after treatment can be released into the biosphere has created a problem in the past. This is particularly true where insufficiently treated water containing these materials is released in areas where the water supply is naturally confined or in areas where the water table is particularly high. Numerous federal and state regulations relating to effluent wastewater quality as to surface active agents, detergents and like materials concentrations have been promulgated and implemented to protect the biosphere. In the past decade, numerous changes in the synthetic detergent industry have occurred as a result of this problem with a shift from non-biodegradable surface active agents and detergents to more biodegradable surface active agents and detergents. Although there has been this change to domestic and industrial use of more biodegradable surface active agents and detergents, concern still exists with the treatment of wastewaters containing such.
Even with the shift to more biodegradable synthetic detergents and surface active agents, a problem still exists in the treatment of industrial wastewaters where, due to performance characteristics, synthetic surface active agents and detergents which would basically, in the present state of the art, be considered to be non-biodegradable are still employed resulting in difficulties in wastewater treatment of effluent from these industrial processes utilizing such. In particular, the use of microbiological treatment of wastewater effluents from textile plants employing non-biodegradable synthetic surface active agents and detergents as processing aids and agents has resulted in high cost treatment of such wastewater. Further, the presence of these synthetic surface active agents and detergents in wastewater effluent has caused processing difficulties due to foaming which inherently occurs with increased concentration of such materials in the wastewater effluent. This foaming during treatment of such wastewaters has thus resulted in the need for increased capital outlay to provide larger treatment facilities than would normally be required were the foaming not to exist or has resulted in decreased through-put where capacity of the biological treatment facility is not increased.
With the increasing concern as to minimization of the problems arising from pollution, biological processes utilizing microorganisms are being industrially, municipally and domestically employed and in increasing amount. In the processing of wastewaters a large amount of activity in research and development has occurred and is presently occurring to develop improved microbial strains capable of use in industrial, municipal and domestic wastewater treatment facilities. While advances have been made in curtailing pollution problems arising from synthetic surface active agents and detergents due to the shift to more biodegradable materials, a sufficiently acceptable solution to the problem of removing difficulty biodegradable or substantially non-biodegradable synthetic surface active agents and detergents from wastewaters from domestic, municipal and industrial sources has not yet been developed.
As far as surface active agents are concerned, ethoxylated alkyl phenolics and naphtholics have advantageous properties as surface active agents and detergents and are useful industrially. Unfortunateley, such phenolics and naphtholics, particularly those in which the alkyl moiety is branched chain, are considered in the present state of the art to be non-biodegradable or difficultly biodegradable. As a result, it is necessary to monitor wastewaters from processes in which they are used to ensure that their levels in discharge waters meet municipal, state and federal standards to prevent water pollution.
In view of the industrial utility of these phenolics and naphtholics and the requirements of meeting water pollution regulations on the maximum levels they can be present in discharged waters, an analytical method for determining the levels of such in water is disclosed in Environmental Science and Technology, 11, No. 13, p. 1167-1171 (December 1977). The levels of such a nonylphenol ethylene oxide condensate having 10 moles of ethylene oxide per molecule appearing in wastewater which had been biologically treated using semicontinuous activated sludge or continuous activated sludge were determined. This is the only known work where an alkyl phenolic or naphtholic ethylene oxide condensate has been subjected to microbiological treatment with a reduction in the amount thereof being observed. Even here, this biological treatment insufficiently reduced the level of such a phenolic detergent in wastewater and the time required to achieve such was undesirably long.